DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng et al [CN 115257368 A] in view of Hamberger et al [US 9177470 B2].
As for claim 1, Zeng discloses a notification device that executes a notification to a driver of an own vehicle (see Abstract), the notification device comprising:
a speed limit recognition unit that recognizes a speed limit of a traveling region in which the own vehicle travels based on at least one of a captured image of a camera of the own vehicle and a map database (page 2, lines 18-27: judging whether the vehicle navigation system is turn on if it is, then according to the navigation information query speed limiting areas under the current path and the corresponding speed limit value, wherein the navigation information is obtained by the database of the vehicle navigation system; real time obtaining the speed limit value corresponding to the speed limit indication board of the current road section and whether the speed limit value corresponding to the speed limit area is consistent by the vehicle camera; if not, then taking the speed limit value obtained by the vehicle-mounted camera as the speed limit standard, query the current vehicle speed of the vehicle exceeds the speed limit reference; if so, sending out alarm prompt. );
a traveling speed recognition unit that recognizes a traveling speed of the own vehicle based on a detection result of an internal sensor of the own vehicle (page 3, lines 15-18; In some embodiments, the method for sending an alarm prompt comprises: calculating the over-speed weight w, calculating formula of the over-speed weight is as follows: W = (v1-v2) /d; wherein v1 (km/h) is the current speed of the vehicle, v2 is the speed limit reference (km/h), d (m) is the distance between the vehicle current position and the speed limit camera;);
a cumulative value calculation unit that calculates a cumulative value of speed limit excess traveling in a state in which the traveling speed of the own vehicle exceeds the speed limit; and a notification control unit that executes a speed limit excess notification to the driver of the own vehicle when the traveling speed of the own vehicle exceeds the speed limit (page 3, lines 15-35, In some embodiments, the method for sending an alarm prompt comprises: calculating the over-speed weight w, calculating formula of the over-speed weight is as follows: W = (v1-v2) /d; wherein v1 (km/h) is the current speed of the vehicle, v2 is the speed limit reference (km/h), d (m) is the distance between the vehicle current position and the speed limit camera; when the over-speed weight is in the first preset value interval, sending the first stage alarm prompt; when the over-speed weight is in the second preset interval, sending out the second stage alarm prompt. a second aspect, the application embodiment provides a vehicle speed limiting system, the system comprising: the first judging module: for judging whether the vehicle navigation system is turn on a first query for when the vehicle navigation system is turn on, according to the navigation information query speed limiting area under the current path and the corresponding speed limit value, wherein the navigation information is obtained by the database of the vehicle navigation system; the first comparison module: for real-time obtaining the speed limit value corresponding to the speed limit value of the current road section and the speed limit value corresponding to the speed limit area corresponding to the speed limit value by the vehicle camera; the second judging module: for when the speed limiting value corresponding to the speed limiting indicator is not consistent with the speed limiting value corresponding to the speed limiting area, taking the speed limiting value obtained by the vehicle camera as the speed limiting standard, query the current speed of the vehicle exceeds the speed limiting standard, Alarm module: for sending alarm prompt when the current vehicle speed exceeds the speed limit reference.)
Zeng does not specificially disclose wherein the notification control unit decreases a degree of the speed limit excess notification as the cumulative value of speed limit excess traveling increases. However, Zeng discloses that the invention is configured to send different types of alarms based upon the detected traveling time or distance with excessive speed (page 4, line 29 – page 5, line 1). In some embodiments, the system further comprises: a calculation module: for calculating the over-speed weight w, the calculation formula of the over-speed weight is: W = (v1-v2) /d; wherein v1 (km/h) is the current speed of the vehicle, v2 is the speed limit reference (km/h), d (m) is the distance between the vehicle current position and the speed limit camera; the first alarm unit: for when the over-speed weight is in the first preset value interval, sending the first stage alarm prompt; the second alarm unit: for sending the second stage alarm prompt when the over-speed weight is in the second preset interval.) Further, in an analogous art, Hamberger discloses that it was known in the art for speed limit warning systems to control the degree of the notification based on whether the driver continues to exceed the speed limit (column 2, line 44 – column 3, line 10). Having each of the references on hand, it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to try varying the notifications received by the driver based on the driver response to the initial alarm and the driving conditions. Whether to increase or decrease the amount of notifications to the driver is viewed as a matter of engineering preference that would have left to one possessing ordinary skill in the art.
Claim 3, is interpreted and rejected using the same reasoning as claim 1 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 4-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Each of the cited references discloses speed limit warning systems and methods that were known in the art at the time of filing the instant application.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC M BLOUNT whose telephone number is (571)272-2973. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00a - 5:30p.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Quan Wang can be reached at 571-272-3114. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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ERIC M. BLOUNT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2685
/Eric Blount/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685